The picture above was taken in the 9th hour of a 9-hour day romping through the snow to James Peak. I'd safely say 75-80% of the day was spent in white out conditions, much like the last time I went to James Peak in the winter. Winds were sustained somewhere in the 60-70 mph range, but Sheila and I made it the top and more importantly, back down again. James Peak is officially listed at 13,294 feet though the GPS measured it being a wee bit higher.
It must be said that white-out vertigo is a bad feeling; your eyes simply cannot focus on anything and no matter where you look, you see depthless white. Especially on downhills, this can be disorienting. In this case, I made a point of looking down at my blue snowshoes to get a little bit of the contours of the snow.
I've been to James Peak now a total of 5 times. Twice I didn't make it to the top because of weather, once I almost got killed by lightning after the summit, and then this time I could hardly see 4 feet in front of me. One time did I get up in good style with no life threatening tendrils of mother nature grasping at my mortal soul.
Overall, 3/5 on the summits.
Sunday was much more mellow, worked on my book proposal and helped Cyrus try to fix his car while noticing my own trusty 89' Honda Accord is starting to ride a little rough. I guess it wouldn't be a Dziezynski car if it wasn't about to fall apart.
Oh and for you lovebirds out there, Happy Valentine's Day. May you suckle sweetly from any she-wolf that is kind enough to lend a teat. :)
